Photo of Siddhant Sharma

Associate in the Real Estate practice at the Delhi office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Siddhant advises on acquisition and development of residential, commercial and industrial properties. Siddhant has also advised clients on project financing matters. He can be reached at siddhant.s@cyrilshroff.com

RERA or Consumer Fora – Homebuyers can make the choice!

Can allottees approach Consumer Forum under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986[1] (the “CP Act”), despite the remedies available under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (the “RERA”), if they don’t want to take a recourse under the latter? This question was long debated and the Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) finally answered it in the case of Imperial Structures Limited v. Surinder Anil Patni and Another[2]. The Supreme Court held that the RERA does not bar the jurisdiction of the CP Act to deal with the complaints filed by consumers who are homebuyers or allottees of real estate projects registered under RERA. While this finding may create more challenges and complexities, such as parallel litigations and claims initiated under both RERA and CP Act, we will analyse the rationale behind this judgment.
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